Design of a baseband transceiver for multicarrier CDMA communications

Multicarrier systems have become popular for their spectral efficiency and robustness against frequency-selective fading. Multicarrier code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA) is a technique that combines the advantage of multicarrier modulation with that of code-division multiple access (CDMA) to offer reliable high-data-rate downlink cellular communication services. In this paper, we present the architecture of a downlink baseband transceiver using the MC-CDMA technology under the same bandwidth requirement and channel condition as the third-generation wideband CDMA system. In the transmitter, a scrambling code is applied in order to reduce the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the transmitter output. In the receiver, we use a joint weighted least-squares (WLS) synchronization error estimation algorithm and a novel channel estimator. Both algorithms greatly enhance the system error-rate performance, as indicated by functional simulation. Simulation results also verify maximum aggregate coded data rates of 5.4/10.8 Mbps from 32/64 users in mobile/stationary multipath fading channel with a 3/4 convolutional code, respectively.